NYC man to swim dirtiest U.S. waterway for Earth Day

NEW YORK - A local man is marking Earth Day by taking the plunge for his favorite cause.

As CBS New York reports, Christopher Swain is getting ready to swim what's been heralded as America's dirtiest waterway -- the Gowanus Canal.

Just about everyone is warning Swain not to do it, but the clean water advocate says he's determined.

"People tell me I'm crazy, right? You know, they say, 'You're crazy for swimming the Gowanus Canal,' and I say 'You know what's crazy? What's crazy is how messed up this is,'" he said, referring to the waterway's condition.

His 1.8-mile swim will begin where Douglas Street dead ends into the canal and will end near the harbor.

He'll be joined along the way by a long list of pollutants

"It's everything from sewage, to oil and gas slicks, to coal tar residue bubbling up, and then if you look at the sludge at the bottom of the canal 10-20 feet of mud spiked with everything, every kind of toxic chemical and metal that we've been able to produce in the last 150 years 200 years," he said.

Swain said the goal is to raise awareness about just how filthy the waterway is so it can one day be swimmable for everyone.

For now, he'll need the help of a dry suit to keep the water from touching his body.

"I'll wear goggles, I will wear ear plugs, I will wear a cap. But beyond that, there will be exposed skin so I'll cover that with water barrier cream," he told CBS2.

But even with the protection, Dr. Robert Glatter said it's a bad idea.

"This is one of the most dangerous moves I can consider. I think he should reconsider," he said.

Even the Environmental Protection Agency tweeted a warning.

"What I'm imagining is not so much what this one swim will do, but I'm imagining the dream of the Gowanus Canal that is glittering in the sun that is completely clean," he said.

In:
• Brooklyn